Russian Martynova to appeal against drugs ban

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian medley and butterfly champion Yana Martynova will appeal against a four-year ban imposed by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) after she tested positive for ostarine in an out-of-competition test.

Yana Martynova of Russia swims on the women's 400 individual medley final at the European Swimming Championships in Eindhoven in this March 18, 2008 file photo. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

The 28-year-old, who won the silver medal at the 2007 world championships and bronze at the 2008 European championships, failed the doping test in July 2015, a few weeks before the world championships in her home city of Kazan.

She was provisionally suspended by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) on July 27.

In March, FINA decided that Martynova would serve a four-year ban for her doping offences but she has decided to appeal against the ruling with a hearing pending.

“Yana will definitely fight this disqualification and has traveled to Moscow to hear her case,” Martynova’s father Valery Martynov told the R-Sport news agency.

“Yana is in a very difficult state of mind. It is a shock for the whole of our family.

“Even when she was a child and had only started swimming, we talked with her coach and said that she would never take any banned substances, otherwise she would instantly stop her lessons. I do not know how this got into her system,” Martynov added.

All-Russian Swimming Federation (ARSF) spokeswoman Margarita Balakireva was not immediately available for comment.

ARSF said last week that it had received documents from FINA confirming that Yulia Efimova, four-times world champion and bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, had been temporarily suspended from competition due to the possibility of breaking anti-doping regulations.

The 23-year-old breaststroke specialist faces a life ban after she tested positive for meldonium.